Scott M. Fulton III, 28th July 2006

Los Angeles (CA) - As expected, the official entry of Intel's new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors into the "in stock" category from major retailers is pushing street prices for dual-core Pentium D 900 series processors down, over 10% since last Tuesday and down about 40% since 18 July, according to the latest figures from PriceGrabber.

Recent data now shows the average street price for the Pentium D 960 down to $329, which is 12.3% below its price just 48 hours earlier, and 42.3% below its selling price of $570 from 18 July. Pentium D 950 prices are also down by 11.4% since last Tuesday, and 38.3% since 18 July, to $242. These prices reflect only about a 4% and 8% markup, respectively, from their 1000-unit "tray" prices.

Prices for the higher-end of the Pentium 800 scale have also dropped since last Tuesday, though they actually remain higher than their 18 July figures. Pentium D 840s now sell for $388 on average, down 7.6% from last Tuesday; and Pentium D 830s sell for $199, down 23.2%.

Meanwhile, prices for AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4400+ nosedived by 48.5% on average since just last Tuesday, to $254 from $493. At the same time, Athlon 64 X2 5000+ prices continued a steady decline, now down to $469. However, the 5000+ price remains strangely high, given the fact that AMD published processor-in-a-box (PIB) prices for the unit last Monday afternoon as low as $301. The 5000+ price would need to decline to $377.47, based on data revised today, for it to meet the price/performance curve set by Intel; while the 4400+ price would need to reach $217.10. However, the 4400+, like Floyd Landis after Stage 18 of the Tour de France, has already made up most of that ground in a very short time.